Dualboot on Lenovo B570 - 1: Prerequisites

In this multi-post series I'll will document the setup of a dualboot laptop.

Well, dualboot isn't totally correct (just for Dr. Google) - it should read tripleboot, because in the end it will run three mainstream operating systems side by side:

• Windows 7
• Ubuntu 11.04
• Fedora 15

 Hardware used:

• Lenovo B570 Laptop (i5 / 4GB RAM / 640GB HDD)
• Transcend Ultraspeed 8GB USB-Stick
• external 640 GB USB-Disk for Backup

Step 1: Windows 7 - Setup

Nothing special here. After turning on the laptop for the first time the Windows 7 installation starts and guides you through all necessary steps.


Additionally software installed (required for next steps):

• md5 checksum Tool for Windows
  nice drag & drop md5 checksum calculator (just put the executable directly on the desktop)
• XBoot (Multiple LiveISOs on USB-Stick)
• .NET-Framework v4 (required by XBoot)
• EasyBCD (Windows Bootloader Config Tool) 

For my personal minimum setup I installed also (not required):

• VirtualBox (let you setup and run virtual machine easily)
• Java JDK 1.7
• MineCraft (I'm actually addicted to this game)
• Mozilla Firefox Browser
  ... because Chrome-Browser has no master password!

Step 2: Preparing the USB-Stick for Multiboot

1. Format the USB-Stick with FAT32
2. Start XBoot and select Downloads from menu which gives you a list of supported LiveISOs and where you can download them.
3. For my setup I downloaded:
   
   • Fedora 15 64-bit ISO (necessary)
   • Ubuntu 11.4 64-bit ISO (necessary)
   • GParted ISO - for partition manipulations (necessary)
   • Clonezilla - for partition and/or complete harddisk backup (necessary)
   • SystemRescue ISO - various tools (optional)
   • Ultimate Boot CD - another set of tools (optional)
   • Partition Magic ISO - another partitions manipulation distro (optional)
4. After downloading close the download site selection menu and drag & drop the ISOs to the main window of XBoot. They should get automatically recognized. By double clicking on the the names (first column) used by XBoot you can edit them. To recognize the versions later I added at least version numbers including a 64 bit hint to the names.
5. Press the button to write the stuff to the USB stick, select the correct stick and let it finish. 

Note, that XBoot is not able to modify any previous installation on a stick, nor is it able to write its configuration somewhere for later reuse. Make sure everything is setup correct BEFORE writing to the stick. Otherwise restart with formatting the stick with FAT32.

If you want to use the built-in QEMU-Simulation to test the stick, you must start XBoot first as admin (right-click + run as admin).